I have a nice 14.4V Dustbuster where the battery pack is pretty much
unsable right now. It's a nice vac. I bought a new 18V one with a
removable battery, but it doesn't seem to work as well.

I took the 14.4V battery pack apart. It contains 12 sub-C size cells. 4
show 0V, while the rest are showing about 1V (it's not fully charged.)

Has anyone had any luck in replacing individual cells? There are no
markings on the batteries, so I have no idea what their capacity is.
These are chained together with short metal strips that are spot-welded
to the batteries. How easy/hard would it be to solder to them, and will
it damage the batteries if I try?

I have found direct replacement packs at some sites, but at $30+, I
wonder if it's worth it. It's as much as a new vac, but then the new
vacs seem to be pretty crappy.

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